That leaves the question of why Frisk’s soul is so fragile, why do they lack their own “self-determination?” It’s a good question and likely related to why Frisk climbed Mt Ebott in the first place and also likely why they are allowing themselves to be controlled by a player.This list is only a tiny dent of words and phrases commonly used that shatter one's self-esteem. Yet it being a video game we still need to do so through an avatar like Frisk.

I mean compared to a video game character we’re basically gods, so it’s natural for us to have the god-like power to save and reset.

With this in mind it’s easy to see why the player would naturally override Flowey's determination enabling us to save and reset the world. ' “I will keep playing until everyone is saved.” “I will dunk Sans's bony butt.” These kinds of decisions are what drastically affect the life of the story which ultimately lives in the minds of players rather than in mere lines of code. “I will figure this battle out.” 'I won’t let Flowey win. If it were Chara's soul he wouldn't need to take the player's/Frisk's in the genocide ending, not that it would necessarily stop him from taking it _anyway_.įurther there’s the unshakeable fact that the game does not progress, move, or live without the player so the player’s real life determination also comes into play. They did make go through with a plan that involved their own suicide after all. However one who definitely has strong determination would be Chara. Their determination hanging on a thread and being bolstered by nigh impossible hopes for a mouse to get some cheese. Maybe the point is that Frisk is just that much more fragile than we’d like to admit. Seems like if Chara could do that, he’d want to do it all the time, but it only happens in the final Pacifist battle and after the battle Frisk’s identity is revealed. It’s definitely a much quicker way of getting through battles than reloading a save after all. Their soul simply refusing to die and auto restoring their HP. What if determination isn’t a constant in Frisk’s soul? What if it comes and goes? I mean if Frisk were constantly filled with determination why would they ever bother reloading on death? There’d just be the “But it refused” thing happening every time. That it’s Frisk’s soul, but Chara’s (or the player’s) determination.Įvery save point in the game is a moment in time when Frisk is “filled with determination” due to some inspiring influence in the environment and the most recent of those moments is where and when the player can reload to, but not any moments in between. I wonder if it might be the other way around. (There was certainly a lot of rambling here, I hope any of this even made sense.) In the case of Asgore, he probably has a system in place for capturing human souls before they shatter, because lord knows human souls wouldn’t want to persist after the experience he’s aware he’s giving them. Determination is an important factor in persisting, after all, and it possibly goes as far as applying even beyond one’s soul shattering in the case of humans, hence save points.īut I think it’s also important to note that a lot of monsters don’t even attack you with the purpose of catching your soul – most of them don’t even know you’re human, and a good amount of them don’t even realize they’re attacking you (Vulkin being a good example). Otherwise, it shatters, possibly from simply giving up. A good example of this is in Asriel’s battle your soul refuses upon death. In fact, I believe the writings say a human’s soul CAN persist after death, not that it always does (someone correct me if I’m wrong). If they know your soul persists after death, those who are aware could be after that without even being aware that (for some reason) your soul shatters upon death.

I want to say monsters aren’t directly attacking your soul, though, at least not knowingly? I see it as you’re moving both your body and soul as one. I was about to answer the same thing regarding determination being broken (as JJ64 pointed out) but then realized you were referring to the in-game battle sequence of moving your soul around to fight obstacles.

Soul shatter